This weekend, we drove up to Charlotte, North Carolina to visit my grandmother (80 years old). Every March, she flies down from New Hampshire to stay with her aunt (92 years old). Crumpet and I drive up to visit her. These are two incredible ladies, and this trip has become a lovely tradition. My grandmother still golfs and gardens and travels. Her aunt still does yoga and plays croquet and socializes non-stop. They are both so inspiring! Crumpet is the only small person in their lives, and they really look forward to seeing him each year. And of course, they spoil him rotten. He knows and remembers them now, and he made them both glow by giving them giant bear hugs at the end of our visit. I know it made their year, and I was so proud of how well behaved and kind he was around them.
My grandmother adores children's museums, and so do we. Charlotte has a couple of good ones. The first place we went was the Charlotte Nature Museum. It's small, but we managed to stay busy there for almost 4 hours!
There are some live animal exhibits, as well as a nice outdoor walking trail, which we enjoyed after a huge rainstorm blew past.
Crumpet enjoyed being "the cutest bug":
He played with toy frogs in a small stream made just for playing in. He also enjoyed learning about ways to keep water sources clean..jpg)
He put on a little puppet show:.jpg)
And went "bird watching":.jpg)
He spun this carousel which shows a bee dance when it is in motion. We talked about the fact that bees dance to communicate with other members of their hive..jpg)
There was a butterfly garden, and we spent some time trying to coax them to land on our fingers. No luck, but we did get close to a few:.jpg)
Here's Crumpet with his Gee Gee (for Great Grandma). She adores him, and is devastated about our move to Hawaii..jpg)
So, um, now I'm going to cry because I've made myself sad about the end of this tradition... More about Charlotte travels next week. 
What a great trip! I agree - it's very inspiring to see older people active and enjoying life. Anna's grandparents who are visiting us now are both 80 and still able to take those long flights to visit us. They also travel in Europe several times a year. Maybe your grandma will be adventurous enough to visit Hawaii after you move? The museum looks wonderful - we really need to get out more and visit some of great museums we have in our area.
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ReplyDeleteNot sure Crumpet looks too happy about being the cutest bug, but it is a cute picture! What a wonderful tradition you have of visiting your grandmother and aunt. Before we began traveling, we visited weekly with my grandparent's. It became something we all looked forward to. It was incredibly hard to leave knowing they missed us but we remained in touch through post cards, letters, phone calls and of course visits when we were home. I bet Crumpet would really love to draw some pictures of some of the new things he discovers in Hawaii for his Gee Gee. I'm sure he'll even narrate a letter or two as well. It's not the same as a physical visit, but I'm sure it will brighten your grandmother's day. Thanks for joining in on Field Trip Friday!:)
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